📍CALABRIA

Pollo alla Calabrese

Recently, my family and I traveled to Calabria to find my extended family. There, we enjoyed the same foods my parents taught me to cook in America. Inspired by Calabria, this week I made pollo alla Calabrese.

Pollo alla Calabrese is a healthy, quick, and easy meal to prepare that combines a variety of rich, flavorful seasonings. Calabria is in the toe of Italy’s boot and known for its cucina povera, or modest ingredients, transformed into delicious meals. Despite limited lowland area, farming is the mainstay of Calabria’s economy. One of the seasonings used in pollo alla Calabrese, pepper, underscores Calabria as the pepper capital of Italy. Calabria is the main producer and consumer of chili peppers, which may be enjoyed raw, pickled, stuffed, or sautéed. Though traditionally cooked with dark meat, I opted to use chicken breasts in my meal for a heart-healthy option. I’ve included the recipe I used from the cookbook “My Calabria” by Rosetta Costantino and Janet Fletcher.

Calabria offers a variety of delicious, nutritious meals. Consider trying these other recipes from the Calabria region: Zuppa Di Asparagi, Melanzene Ripiene, Lagane E Cicciari, Cuddruriaddri

Buon appetito!
- Lucy

My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy’s Undiscovered South

by Rosetta Costantino with Janet Fletcher

Pollo Alla Calabrese

Serves 4 to 6

This simple, home-style recipe is prepared in Calabria with chicken and rabbit. The meat juices infuse the potatoes, and in the end, both meat and vegetables are cloaked in a savory glaze. The use of oregano and hot red pepper is the Calabrian signature. I prefer to make the dish with chicken legs and thighs because they take about as long to cook as the potatoes do. You can use a whole cut-up chicken or just bone-in breasts, but you will need to remove the breasts when they are done. They cook faster than the potatoes. My cooking students tell me that this dish has become their “comfort food,” a nutritious dinner that takes almost no time to prepare.

Ingredients

• 3 pounds bone-in chicken legs and thighs, trimmed of all visible fat

• 3 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1 1/2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, cut into 2-inch chunks

• 3/4 pound ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into 1-inch chunks

• 1 large yellow onion, halved and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

• 3 garlic cloves, halved

• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano or 1 tablespoon dried oregano

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

• Ground hot red pepper

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit, and position a rack on the lowest level.

• Season the chicken all over with 2 teaspoons of the salt, and several grinds of black pepper.

• Put the potatoes, tomatoes, onion, and garlic in a baking dish large enough to hold the chicken in one layer. A 9-by-13 inch glass or ceramic baking dish works well.

• Sprinkle the vegetables with the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons salt.

• Place the chicken in the baking dish, add the oregano (crumbling the dried oregano, if using, between your fingers as you add it), and drizzle with the oil.

• With your hands, toss the chicken and vegetables to coat them thoroughly with the seasonings. Then remake the bed of vegetables, arranging the chicken on top, skin side up.

• Sprinkle the chicken with hot pepper to taste.

• Place the baking dish in the oven on the bottom rack and bake until the skin is crisp and golden, 30 to 45 minutes. Turn the chicken pieces over and continue baking until the chicken juices run clear, the potatoes are tender, and most of the pan juices have been absorbed, 20-30 minutes.

• Serve immediately, spooning the remaining pan juices over the chicken.